“Quinn,” I sobbed. “Stop putting me through this. We can’t do this. You know why we can’t do this.”
His face fell, but he nodded compliantly. “I know. And I’m sorry for causing you more distress, but I had to try. You know I had to try, right?”
All I knew was that I ached so deep inside, I felt like my spirit was being ripped to shreds. Unable to say a thing in response, I spun away from him and fled. I just...I couldn’t deal with this.
Cora marched into my bedroom where I was writing a new story on Wednesday evening, all dressed up in her party clothes. She tossed some kind of pink cloth on my bed.
“Put that on. I’m going out tonight, and you have to come.”
I glanced at the pink…dress, I guess it was, and went back to writing. “I don’t want to go out tonight.” And I certainly didn’t want to go out with her.
“Well, too bad. You have to. The girls are demanding I go out with them to help me get over my break-up. It wouldn’t look right if you didn’t come.”
The urge to be nasty rose in my throat. I wanted to spit something like, “Oh, you mean it’d look like I didn’t support you and your faithless, cheating ways?” But then I remembered what I’d done to her, and how I’d spent the entire evening with the guy she’d been in a serious relationship with for months on the very evening he broke up with her.
The guilt kept me quiet. I ducked my face. “I’m not going.” If Quinn could tell Ten he wasn’t going out with him to get over Cora, I could tell her the same thing. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of other girls with you to support you.”
“But you’re my roommate.” She picked up the dress and shoved it in my face. “It’s doubly important that you show your support.”
I glanced up at her. “But I don’t support what you did.”
“And I don’t give a flying fuck what you feel in your tender, little, self-righteous heart. Appearances are everything, Zoey. You’re going, or I’ll tell all my friends we broke up because he cheated on me…with you.”
So, I went out with Cora and her friends, but I chose my own outfit, putting on skinny jeans, tall boots and a long top.
They decided to hit Forbidden first. Maybe they wanted Quinn to be working so they could flaunt Cora in front of him and make him miss her or something. I don’t know, but he wasn’t on duty, so whatever that plan had been fell through anyway. Ten and Asher were the two guys manning the bar. Cora’s crew found a table near the front doors and a waitress took our order. I glanced toward the bar a few times, but both guys seemed too busy to notice us.